Game Republic + GaMaYo, Leeds 2019

Game developers from across the country assembled yesterday at AvenueHQ in Leeds for the much anticipated Game Dev day; one in a series of events hosted by Jamie Sefton from Game Republic this year.

We love meeting game developers from far and wide and seeing what they are working on. We know from our own experience that launching a game brings a huge sense of achievement but we also know the many benefits and opportunities that exist pre and post launch.

At Game Republic we heard from John Tearle, Anna Mansi and our very own Paul Farley who talked about important factors of the development journey such as co-development, video game tax relief and running games as services instead of products.

Game Republic Speakers

Game Dev Day talks were kicked off by John Tearle from Flix Interactive who shared his experience in building his games studio over the years from the ground up, and the part co-development played in achieving a studio that now employs 50+ people.

Jamie Sefton introducing John Tearle, Flix Interactive

Anna Mansi shared tips for game devs of all shapes and sizes on how to apply for video game tax relief, giving detail around the cultural test and what to look out for when applying. For more information on video game certification visit the British Film Institute to download supporting docs, guidelines and the application form.

Anna Mansi, BFI

Paul talked about his experience at Tag Games, and how a drive in demand for live ops and backend tools developed over time into the creation of ChilliConnect. The ChilliConnect platform now supports game devs from around the globe to deliver their games to players as a service, not just a product.

Paul Farley, ChilliConnect

Paul described how studios such as King and Space Ape have seen much success by adopting live ops into their game dev strategy and how folding live game management into your game from day one can help massively when running games as a service post launch.

GaMaYo Games Showcase

In the evening everyone moved over to Box for the GaMaYo games showcase where we meet 270+ game devs from Yorkshire and play some new games such as Fish Tank, a high pressure fun multiplayer game from Sock Monkey, Gnome in the Dark from students Laura and Madison and Spaceteam VR from Cooperative Innovations. There were many more games on offer to try out and there was definitely something for everyone!